


Umbrella

by xxPayne



Series: Unrelated Short AU's/Drabbles [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coffee, Fluff, M/M, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 21:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4154118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxPayne/pseuds/xxPayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis has an umbrella and Liam doesn't. Louis shouldn't feel bad, but he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Umbrella

**Author's Note:**

> I apparently have a thing for precipitation… who knew? This is set in Michigan because I have no idea how to leave my comfort zone. Anyway, I hope you like it!

Louis doesn’t take pity on anyone running around town without an umbrella ready at a moment’s notice. He only had to live here for a month to realize that in the spring, an umbrella is the single most valuable thing he could carry with him—and if he had enough room in his bag, he’d bring a second one, just in case anything were to happen to the first one.

The thing is, nobody watches the weather anymore. Most people, excluding mothers all around the country, don’t even bother to check it on their phones. That’s why Louis doesn’t feel an ounce of guilt whenever he sees someone trying to run across a busy parking lot while being soaked by freezing rain. That is, until he saw _him_.

He’s a tan-skinned man around Louis’ age wearing a completely not-temperature-appropriate lumberjack-looking flannel which is buttoned up almost all the way—probably because he’s only just realized how cold it is outside, having not checked the weather. His face is the most interesting part—he looks somehow like a dad and a puppy-dog at the same time, and in the time Louis spends pondering how this could be, the dad-puppy has tried to evade the bad weather by ducking under a business’ awning, but it’s not wide enough to cover any of his head.

The man looks so very pitiful that Louis almost debates going over to him and offering him his umbrella. But it’s pouring outside, and Louis brought an umbrella, and this man—an admittedly beautiful man—did not. Louis supposes he could share the umbrella because he doesn’t really need to be anywhere, though he’s never felt generous enough to do so before. It probably helps that the man is inhumanely attractive.

“Hey!” Louis finds himself yelling before his brain can catch up with his mouth.

The man looks backwards and, when he finds that there’s no one behind him, looks confusedly back at Louis. He points to himself and furrows his ridiculous eyebrows while mouthing, “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Louis calls, not paying attention to the people around him that are giving him dirty looks—he has, after all, just stopped walking in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

The man jogs over to Louis, looking up sadly at the hammering rain. “Hey, mate,” the man says, his accent thick and surprising.

“You’re British!” Louis says stupidly, his voice hardly being heard over the rain. That’s when he remembers that the whole reason he called this man over here was to share his umbrella, and yet he’s not doing anything of the sort. “Oh, well, I thought you sort of needed this.”

He holds out the umbrella so that it’s just barely covering his own head, and the man gratefully gets underneath it beside him. “Thanks a lot, erm…”

“Louis,” he says with a half-smile. “And you are…”

“Liam,” he answers, his brown eyes lighting up. Louis has never really liked brown eyes, but he supposes there’s a first time for everything. “How about I buy you a coffee? You know, to say thanks.”

Louis’ heart speeds up a bit and he tries to convince himself that Liam is just being friendly.

“I guess that would be adequate repayment,” Louis pretends to muse.

Liam rolls his eyes good-naturedly and bumps his shoulder into Louis’. “Hopefully you know a good coffee shop, because I know absolutely _nothing_ about this area. And someone stole my umbrella on that corner over there.”

The pout on his face is ridiculous and hot at the same time, and once again Louis is confused by this man that he’s just met two minutes ago.

“Well, what if I told you I know a place where you could buy an umbrella _and_ a coffee?”

They end up having to walk three blocks to get to Barnes and Noble, where Louis is disappointed because he realizes that once they’re inside, there will be no reason for Liam to stand so close to him anymore. Yet, even when his umbrella is closed, Liam’s shoulder still brushes Louis’ while they make their way to the café. They choose a table at the edge of the room, pressed against a window so they can watch the rain as it continues to catch people off guard despite the fact that it’s been pouring for days straight, and only once they sit down does Liam separate himself from Louis a bit.

“That was really nice, what you did,” Liam smiles, and the look on his face is so unbearably sincere. “Most people wouldn’t have let me borrow their umbrella.”

“Well, I have to admit that you’re the first person I’ve ever done that for,” Louis says, trying to sound nonchalant as he takes a sip of his still pleasantly scalding black coffee. “I’m usually mad at anyone who doesn’t check the weather.”

Liam laughs and nods like he knows what he means, though Louis doubts that he does. “Either way, I appreciate it.”

When both of their coffees are gone, Louis sits awkwardly, waiting for Liam to either leave or say something first. He’s never been too good at knowing whether or not someone’s interested in him, but that’s a story for another time. He doesn’t have to wait long, because then Liam is saying, “Listen, I know we just, like, met and everything, but I think you’re really sweet and I really hope you like guys because I’d love to take you out sometime.”

He says it so fast that Louis isn’t sure he’s heard correctly for a moment. Then, when his brain catches up, he answers, with a shy smile, “Yeah, yeah, that’d be great. Here, I’ll just put my number in your phone, if that’s ok?”

Liam hands him his phone instead of an answer, and Louis is quick about making his new contact. When he hands it back, their fingers brush and Louis feels even more flushed, though he hopes to god that Liam can’t see it.

It isn’t until they’ve left Barnes and Noble and are aimlessly walking around downtown together—after Louis walks Liam to the bank quickly, which is what Liam had set out to do before he met Louis—that they realize Liam never bought his own umbrella. When Liam mentions this, accompanied by a sheepish frown, Louis simply smiles and says, “I don’t mind sharing.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love to hear anything you guys have to say. :)  
> Tumblr: ourlarrys


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